Share via

Internet Sign-up Using the Internet Connection Wizard

  • Article

If you are an Internet service provider (ISP), you can specify the Internet Connection Wizard (Icwconn1.exe) as the tool that customers use to sign up and configure their computers for using your Internet services.

Important

The Internet sign-up option is not available for the Windows Vista operating system.

The Internet Connection Wizard automatic configuration enables users to configure a connection on a new computer, or to use an existing Internet service account that they had on a previous computer. The wizard also helps users whose Internet settings have been corrupted. The automatic configuration (auto-configuration) feature restores settings — the user only needs to know the user ID, password, and point of presence (POP) server.

In a custom version of Internet Explorer, the user can access the auto-configuration server from a link from Setup or on the Icwsign.htm page, which should be included as part of your custom package. This link connects the user to the auto-configuration registration server.

After the user is connected to your sign-up server, you can ask for the user name, password, and point-of-presence (POP) server. With this information, you can send an .ins file to the user's computer to configure the user's account. Alternatively, you can store .ins files with the rest of the user's account information. When a user connects to the auto-configuration server, they can get the .ins file by providing only the user name and password. Then, the auto-configuration server looks up the user's account and delivers a copy of the user's original .ins file.

You can use customizable samples for Internet sign-up. These samples are located in the IEAK Toolkit in the <systemdrive>:\Program Files\Microsoft IEAK 7\toolkit\isp\Server\ICW folder and its subfolders. The code is provided in Active Server Page format (.asp files) as well as Perl format (.pl files), to help you to build an Internet Connection Wizard sign-up server for Web servers with different operating systems. If you use the sample code, you only need to integrate the sign-up server with your registration and billing systems.

The following topics describe how to develop a sign-up process that uses the Internet Connection Wizard. Although these topics describe a tested sign-up solution that is applicable to most cases, you should customize the sign-up process to meet the specific needs of your organization.

Important

If you are creating a configuration-only custom browser package, do not use Internet Connection Wizard sign-up if you anticipate that some of your users are using Internet Explorer 4.01 Service Pack 1 or earlier. Instead, create a separate package using kiosk mode sign-up for these customers.

Additional references